The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, entered his plea on Thursday at Birmingham Crown Court. Leo was thought to have been making his way home from his school in Yardley Wood, Birmingham, when he was stabbed in the stomach on 21 January 2025. At 12 years old, he is believed to be the youngest victim of knife crime in the West Midlands.

Members of the public came to help him as he lay on a riverside path in a park and called the emergency services but Leo died in hospital. His family said he had been walking a 10-minute route home and police said he was speaking to a friend on the phone, arranging to meet near a certain tree in Trittiford Mill Park. His friend turned up but Leo never did.

His foster family described him as "the sweetest, kindest boy who put others before himself." "He was loved by all that knew him, he made friends with everyone he met, young or old," they added. Leo's birth mother, Rachel Fisher, said her son "didn't have a bad bone in his body". "My baby's life was stolen for no reason whatsoever, my life will never be the same again without him," she said. (BBC)